This invention relates to an automated spelling correction method and apparatus which operates with a selected skeleton form of words, in lieu of processing words in the conventional graphic form of every-day printed matter. More particularly, the invention provides automated spelling correction which converts each misspelled word to a selected skeleton form, and processes the skeleton to find the correct spelling.
Spelling correction with word skeletons according to the invention has many advantages, including the capability for successfully correcting nearly all misspellings, including those with multiple errors, and with high speed operation. The practice of the invention simplifies and further speeds up spelling correction because it produces an unusually small number of correct suggestions from which the user is to select the correct replacement for any given misspelled word. In many instances it produces only a single correct replacement.
Word processors commonly have a spelling verifier, which is a system for identifying misspelled words. However, the automated correction of a misspelled word, once it is identified, is a far more difficult task than simply identifying the misspelling. One leading spelling corrector currently marketed for word processors typically presents a user with five to seven suggestions to replace one faulty word. This relatively large number of suggested correct words delays the user, who must consider each candidate within the context the text being prepared. Another problem is to correct a high percentage of misspellings, or otherwise the user incurs further delay to perform a manual dictionary look-up in the event the automated correction fails.
The prior art regarding spelling correction includes the disclosures in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,969,968 and 4,355,371. Also of interest is the disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,254 regarding word verification.
Objects of this invention are to provide improved automated spelling correction suitable for use on a word processor, and more particularly to provide a method and apparatus for automated spelling correction which can correct all but few misspellings and which operates with sufficient high speed for convenient on-line use and operator interaction.
Another object is to provide such a spelling correction method and apparatus which produces only a small number of correctly-spelled suggestions to replace a misspelled word, and which hence requires minimal user decisions and correspondingly requires few user operations.
A further object of the invention is to r provide spelling correction of the above character which is suitable for use with different languages and, further, which can readily be implemented with programmable digital computers of the types used in present day word processing equipment.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.